We hope everyone knows what live betting is, but if not, we'll explain briefly. It means betting during a match or event. At an online betting site, you can bet on pre-match events. Before the event starts, you can bet on pre-match events. Once the event begins, you can bet live. Prices can change every second, depending on the sport. Many top sports betting sites offer live streaming. Live streaming sites are more popular because many punters like to bet in-play.
There are many in-play markets and match events to bet on. What's available to you really comes down to which sport you fancy betting on. The three most popular sports to bet on at live sport betting sites in the UK are football, tennis, and cricket. Horse racing is up there too, but in-play betting on this sport is best done on the exchanges, notably Betfair. Let's focus on all four and take a deeper look at the best live sports betting sites for these sports and the markets on offer.
Football live betting sites are the most popular when it comes to in-play betting. As the game unfolds, there are hundreds of in-play selections available to punters to back. Live betting on football is great, it really is. If you like football, you'll love it. The in-play bets can be broken down into categories. Let's list them:
Live streaming football is a must if you can't get to a TV and want to bet as the match unfolds. You can watch live football streaming free at a lot of the top UK bookies. All they ask is that you've either had a bet on the event or you have a positive balance in your account. Sometimes you might have to adhere to both of those terms.
For any football fan, trying to understand what's going on in every game when you have an acca on is very difficult. Thankfully, bookies will have live football scores on their site and on their mobile app for punters to keep track of.
You might want to look at football form in terms of a football form guide on who's playing well, maybe even take a look at the Championship home and away table if you're thinking of backing a team in that league for example. The best betting sites for football will have all of these stats so you won't have to go anywhere else.
The likes of Betfair and William Hill can send notifications to your mobile phone as to who's scored and when. That can come in handy when you've done a bit of goal betting or have a big acca on. What LeoVegas has recently launched is their own alerts app.
Their words, not ours. And they are the king of mobile in a lot of people's eyes. Their app is great. But what's made them even better is their new LeoAlerts mobile app. It's separate to their usual betting app, and it's available on Android and iOS.
Essentially, it's a new live scores app where you're able to set your own personalised notifications. You can receive push notifications to your phone reminding you that your chosen match is about to begin or that a goal's just been scored, plus much more.
We're not saying it's the best live scores app around, it's too early to judge, but it's certainly worth getting even if you don't bet at LeoVegas. Say you've backed some teams to score over 1.5 goals in the first half, you can set your notifications up on LeoAlerts to send you a message if over 1.5 goals are scored in the first half of each game. As the LeoAlerts app grows in popularity, it wouldn't be a surprise to see other bookies follow suit with something similar.
Unlike many other sports that take a while before it ends, horse racing is sometimes over in seconds, especially if it is a 5f race for example. In-running betting, or in-play betting, however, you like to refer to it as isn't always guaranteed at horse racing betting sites. This is because it's a very volatile market and the bookies don't have the resources available to offer live betting for horse racing.
With most sports betting sites, any horse racing in-play race will have just the main win market available to bet on. So it's a simple back to win. If you decide you want to bet with Betfair, for example, they have an exchange where you'll find many more in-play betting markets such as:
You can either back a selection or lay a selection. You might be wondering what is a lay bet? A lay bet is simply betting on something not to happen. The opposite of backing a selection. Bear in mind, though, that your liability is often quite high unless the horse is odds on.
Of course, the best way to trade in running on horse racing is to actually go to the track and have a bet on your mobile when you're there and the race is going on. As much as live streaming and live pictures from the racecourse are great if you're at home or on your mobile device, you're always going to be a second or two behind those at the track.
If you do rely on live horse racing streaming, it's best to bet on longer races whilst you watch horse racing live. Why? Exactly due to the reason just mentioned. If you're betting on 5f race, the fact pictures on a live stream are behind by a second or two will leave you vulnerable on the Exchanges especially.
Live cricket betting is growing in popularity all the time in the UK. Odds will fluctuate quicker depending on the type of cricket being played. Odds on a One Day International (ODI) or a Twenty20 match will change more frequently than if you were looking to bet on test match cricket.
Here are just some of the live in-play Cricket markets on offer and most of the top sports betting sites in the UK:
The likes of bet365, William Hill, and Unibet all offer a live cricket streaming service, and they're worth considering. Granted, a cricket match can go on for a very long time, so there's not always a need to keep tabs on the live action all of the time. You'll need to make your move at some point and place a bet, though.
You might want to watch an Australia vs England cricket live streaming service. The mentioned bookies should have you covered if you can't get to a TV. What's good about Cricket is that it doesn't matter too much if the pictures are delayed by a couple of seconds as the play is relatively slow in comparison to other sports. If you're in need of live cricket streams, whether it's ICC live cricket streaming or live IPL cricket streaming, bet365, William Hill or Unibet are good choices.
Another extremely popular sport for live betting, Tennis has a wide range of markets to choose from when betting in-play. When the likes of Roland Garros or Wimbledon are underway, you'll see more markets available to bet on in-play, but even the smaller events such as the Challenger Series have plenty of markets to be on live. Some of the markets you can bet on include:
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